Integrating all young people into society through education and training : Volume I: Compendium of the projects

Volume II is a collection of short analytical presentations of the different conference contributions. These are concise rather then exhaustive, but nonetheless give the reader an idea of the wide range of tentative action being taken in the EU in the endeavour to stem social exclusion. The European Commission indeed made painstaking efforts to ensure that the group of conference participants be as representative as possible of European practice in this field. The national ministries of education and/or social affairs, as well as the European education network Eurydice, were involved for this purpose - and the three experts men­tioned above succeeded, under the Socrates studies programme (Action 3.3.1), in identifying worthwhile examples of good practice in this broad and multidimensional policy field. Full particulars of contact persons are provided should any reader wish to seek further information or, indeed, to propose joint projects at European level. In the European Union between 10 to 20 % of young people leave the education system without any qualifications at all, while 45.5 % of young people aged from 15 to 24 have only low-level qualifications; at best having completed lower secondary school education. With no qualifications or basic skills, their career prospects are bleak. The White Paper on growth, competitiveness and employment stressed that developing education and training is one of the prerequisites for a new model of economic growth that will create jobs. Education and training also lay the foundation for citizenship and social cohesion. On the basis of this analysis, the White Paper 'Teaching and Learning - Towards the Learning Society', adopted by the European Commission in 1995, emphasised the importance, in building this European Union of knowledge, of paying particular attention to those sections of the population experiencing the greatest difficulties, i.e. young people in particular. The Treaty of Amsterdam gave the European Union new powers in the area of employment. The main conclusion of the ensuing 'Luxembourg' process was that addressing the problem of school dropout rates and under-achievement at school should be one of the guidelines for employment policy. All the Member States have incorporated this issue in their national employment plans.